


maybe it's just

by Pomfry



Series: hellfire burns in your eyes [5]
Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Brothers, Coffee, Fluff, Gen, Titus is the best pet, tim is a good brother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-17
Updated: 2017-11-17
Packaged: 2019-02-03 17:34:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12752961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pomfry/pseuds/Pomfry
Summary: Tim is protective of his family, and right now?Damian is hurt. Tim is going to find out who did this to him.





	maybe it's just

**Author's Note:**

> I love this series. I may forget about it once in a while, but it's here. My plans for this is mainly simple, but I won't give anything away!
> 
> (Also nobody gives a shit about the fact that it's under 1000 words which is awesome.)

Tim is slowly losing his mind, and it's all his infuriating, traumatized, previously-dead younger brother.

He stares hard at the screen in front of him, rewinding the tape yet again in an attempt to understand.

_ “Let me out,”  _ Damian screams back bent over as though he's in a cage too small for him, and pounds at a air conditioner, face set in horror and terror, and does it again and again.

Tim pauses the tape.

Was Damian ever claustrophobic? Tim doesn't think so, and if he was it would've been beaten it of him by Talia. So where did this come from?

He presses play.

_ “No, you're dead,”  _  Damian murmurs, eyes wide, and stares at empty space, hands reaching out as if to grab someone.

“What happened,” Tim asks, and nobody answers so he pauses it again and rubs at his eyes.

It's been a week since Damian got fear toxin in his system, a week since Jason showed Tim the video of that night on the rooftop, and a week since Tim got a full eight hours of sleep. He's no closer to an explanation.

Before Damian died, when he got fear toxin, he'd hallucinate of Talia gripping his arms and taking him back, of Bruce turning his back on him, of Dick walking away without a word.

Never  _ ever  _ has he hallucinated of being in a cage.

Tim sighs, tugging at the ends of his hoodie sleeve and takes a drink of coffee. It's not really coffee anymore, but Tim will take the caffeine. He  _ needs  _ to know what happened,  _ needs  _ to know who did it, and since Damian won't give him any information beyond slip ups and fear toxin, Tim will take what he can get and piece together the rest.

It's what he does best, after all, and his family is on the line. He won't stop until he can fix this.

“Drake?”

Speak of the devil.

Tim takes a careful, calculated sip of coffee before turning around. “Yes,” he asks, and Damian shifts uncomfortably, hand clenching in Titus’ fur. Tim squints. That is not discomfort, that's  _ nervousness,  _ and Tim can't remember the last time he saw Damian so obviously nervous.

“Will you.” Damian bites his lip and gently pets Titus’ head, the dog bumping his head against Damian's side in comfort. “Will you sit with me?”

Tim blinks. “Sit with you?”

Damian scowls at him. “Will you sit with me while we wait for Grayson to come back,” he says, and refuses to look at him.

Tim can't stop the smile that twitches at his lips, and he sets the disgusting coffee down beside the keyboard with a click. “Of course I will,” he says warmly, and ruffles his little brother’s hair.

Damian glares at him but leads him over to the medical area where he's already set up a veritable fort of blankets and pillows with snacks and. Wait. Tim stares at the little machine set innocently on a bed with a cup beside it.

Is that-

“Damian,” Tim says cautiously, and Damian glances over at him. “Is that a coffee machine?”

“Yes,” Damian answers, and he makes it sound like it's a question. “Do you not like it?”

Tim grips him by the shoulders. “I love it,” he says, and Damian's sweet little smile  _ totally  _ makes going a week with only an hour of sleep worth it.

He wonders when the last time Bruce said that to Damian, and promptly pulls his brother a hug, because he doesn't think it was recently.

“Really, I do,” he says into Damian's spiky hair, and grins when Damian cautiously returns the embrace.

“Why don't you show me around the nest you've built,” Tim says when the hug stops - and  _ he _ wasn't the one to make it stop - and laughs when Damian frowns at him.

“It's not a nest,” he says severely, and points out the bed made of sheets, blankets, and pillows. “That is the resting area.”

“Of course,” Tim agrees serenely, and sits down.

(When Jason and Dick come rolling in at five in the morning, Damian's fast asleep on Tim's shoulder, and Tim himself is hanging on by a thread.

Tim was right. It  _ was so worth it  _ to stay awake.)

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always loved and brighten up my day and are saved in my Gmail.
> 
> Also! Here's my [Tumblr.](http://nikescaret.tumblr.com) Come visit and chat with me if you want!


End file.
